The Future of the International Investment Law and Policy Regime: Options for Improvement

The international investment regime faces broader challenges, as reflected especially in the discussions regarding the investor-state dispute-settlement mechanism and the quest to make the international investment regime more oriented toward sustainable development objectives and to strengthen disciplines for the behavior of multinational enterprises. A number of options of how the regime can be improved are laid out in this article, including engaging in fact finding processes; establishing consensus-building working groups; formulating a model international investment agreement; building specific mechanisms to improve the investment regime; and commencing intergovernmental processes. An international investment consensus-building process is advocated to facilitate the improvement of the international investment regime.